Evaluate
Weigh the pros and cons of technologies, products and projects you are considering.
Evaluate
Weigh the pros and cons of technologies, products and projects you are considering.
Pros and cons of storage capacity management tools
Learn what storage capacity management tools can and can't do by looking at the operational problems they're attempting to solve. Continue Reading
The pros and cons of solid-state drives for notebook computers
A solid-state drive (SSD), like the name suggests, consists of flash memory, similar to what's in USB flash drives or Secure Digital media cards. This tip discusses the The pros and cons of solid-state drives in an SMB environment. Continue Reading
What software tools do you use to manage your storage systems?
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Six requirements for deploying primary storage optimization solutions
With companies starting to perform data reduction on primary storage, it's important for them to understand the requirements that primary storage optimization demands. Continue Reading
The pros and cons of thin provisioning
Most storage area networks (SANs) have a section in their marketing material entitled "Thin Provisioning," but what is it, how does it work and why does it matter? In this tip, Mark Arnold discusses how thin provisioning can help with both the ... Continue Reading
Finding the right CAS system for your organization
Content-addressed storage (CAS) is a specialized type of archive that provides the inexpensive and high-capacity storage needed to retain data that, although accessed infrequently, still has long-term relevance to the enterprise.Continue Reading
Choosing the right switch for an iSCSI SAN
ISCSI storage doesn't actually require a switch. However, some iSCSI switches offer advanced capabilities that can increase SAN performance. This article offers information about choosing an iSCSI switch and a user case study.Continue Reading
Small-midsized business NAS product evaluation
NAS is available in a wide variety of sizes, prices and levels of sophistication. This article compares and contrasts four very different NAS systems: the Buffalo TeraStation Pro II Pro, the Reldata 9240, the Synology RS407, and the Western Digital ...Continue Reading
For an SMB, what are the advantages and disadvantages of an in-house email archiving system vs. a ho
There are a lot of pros and cons for both at all business sizes. But SMBs tend to be more price and administration sensitive. In other words, if you are a company that has an annual IT budget from $10,000 to $100,000, you simply can not go out and ...Continue Reading
iSCSI SAN solutions getting boost by shared storage, virtual servers
Enterprises are increasingly considering iSCSI SANs for departmental applications, server workloads that aren't bandwidth-intensive, and virtual servers. In fact, the connection between shared storage and virtualized servers is changing the iSCSI ...Continue Reading
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Product Roundup: Data classification
Over the past few years, data classification has gone from a standalone offering to a feature of broader products.Continue Reading
Host bus adapter (HBA) architecture explained
HBAs are integral pieces of a SAN environment -- they connect the server to the SAN -- but few storage administrators know how to configure them.Continue Reading
NAS system planning strategies
Implementing a NAS environment requires a lot of planning. This tip tells you why location, power and allocation are vital to consider when installing a NAS.Continue Reading
Email archiving product specifications
Product specifications for email and file/document management tools can help storage administrators evaluating email archiving products quickly and compare them.Continue Reading
Selecting archiving products
Some data archives are little more than "dumb" disk arrays, but the more sophisticated archives provide data deduplication for single-instance storage, robust power conservation features and immutability for data that may be needed as evidence in ...Continue Reading
Network File Sharing vs. Common Internet File System
Storage expert Greg Schulz explains what you need to know when choosing between Network File Sharing and Common Internet File System.Continue Reading
Guide to data migration tools for storage consolidation
One of the hardest parts about storage consolidation is data migration -- knowing what data to move, and when and where to move it. What are the criteria for purchasing a data migration tool?Continue Reading
NAS product guide
NAS is so easy to install and manage that NAS sprawl is a common problem. This is why NAS is often a prime candidate for consolidation initiatives. Learn how to purchase NAS appliances with an eye toward NAS storage consolidation.Continue Reading
Hot Storage Skills
As storage becomes more complex and costly, businesses are seeking storage professionals who can architect various tiers of networked storage, document what they've done, and help their business units select the type of storage that best supports ...Continue Reading
Data classification product specifications
The product snapshots in this chapter of the Tiered Storage Buying guide highlight key specifications for a cross-section of data classification products.Continue Reading
Data migration product specifications
This chapter of the Tiered Storage Buying guide focuses on product specifications for data migration tools.Continue Reading
E-discovery product specifications
The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross section of e-discovery tools.Continue Reading
Finding the right archiving software product for your organization
Archive software provides many of the features we take for granted in modern archive systems, including index and search, data classification and migration, retention and deletion, litigation hold and even data reduction technologies, such as data ...Continue Reading
EMC acquires ITIL startup Voyence
EMC will integrate Voyence's network configuration and change management software with ECC and Smarts to create al data center management framework.Continue Reading
How to select a storage capacity planning tool
To select a storage management and capacity planning tool, first calculate how much storage is available and how much of your total storage capacity is actually being used.Continue Reading
Clustered storage vendor Isilon hot-swaps CEOs
Beset by disappointing sales since it went public last December, Isilon turns to founder Sujal Patel as its CEO.Continue Reading
Choosing a low-end NAS product
Many low-end NAS products are designed for personal or home office use. However, there are some products on the market suitable for certain SMB or enterprise-level applications. Learn what you need to consider before deploying a low-end NAS product.Continue Reading
When purchasing NAS products, look before you leap
Storage can be added to a network using NAS devices -- dedicated disk-based storage devices that attach to the LAN through an ordinary network connection. NAS devices can be expanded with additional disks, and new NAS appliances can be added as ...Continue Reading
How to choose an e-discovery tool
Here is a list of factors to consider when choosing an e-discovery tool.Continue Reading
NAS gateway product snapshots
A NAS gateway offers file-based accesses to external storage on a disk array -- or a SAN, where users can take advantage of superior performance and reliability while maintaining a level of simplicity. Since storage is moved off of the NAS device, ...Continue Reading
How to choose the correct RAID level
This tip offers nine things to consider when deciding which RAID level is right for your organization's needs.Continue Reading
Choosing a storage virtualization approach
This tip outlines three approaches to storage virtualization available today, along with some benefits, caveats and some examples of each.Continue Reading
Specifications for storage capacity planning products
Gauging storage needs over time is one of the biggest challenges faced by IT administrators, and a new generation of capacity planning tools is emerging to help forecast growth and utilization of storage resources, and even perform predictive ...Continue Reading
What are the disadvantages of unified storage over independent block and file systems?
There are some compromises that you'll need to make; there are certainly some control granularity issues. The pattern of access for file-based data and block-based data is significantly different...Continue Reading
Brocade migration tool does the trick for EMC user
The University of New Mexico Hospital first tried EMC's SANCopy to migrate data off of an old Xiotech array, but ended up having to use Brocade's Data Migration Manager instead.Continue Reading
VAR selection requires careful evaluation
Choosing a VAR is hardly a perfect science. There are many VARs to choose from -- each with their own unique portfolio of products and range of technical expertise. The trick is to do your homework and investigate potential VARs before making a ...Continue Reading
Five must-have storage security testing tools
You know that your storage systems need to be secured and there are plenty of tools to find general security vulnerabilities. But, what about tools that look specifically at storage security vulnerabilities? There are a handful of these tools that ...Continue Reading
Five ways to add capacity to a NAS system
NAS expert Randy Kerns offers some actions to take in order to find more space on your NAS system.Continue Reading
Data storage compliance's impact on storage product choices
Data storage compliance is having a tremendous impact on the storage organization, as well as the management practices employed to retain, search, certify and destroy data. It's not just regulations like SOX or HIPAA that influence storage -- there ...Continue Reading
Data migration products: Proceed with caution
Host-based data migration products are the best choice for moving mission-critical data. While there are only a few products in this category, they vary significantly.Continue Reading
Choosing the right VTL
Disk is increasingly a key part of the backup process, and many companies are taking the virtual tape library (VTL) route to disk-based backup. But all VTLs aren't the same. Find out the key differences among VTL products, and how they might work in...Continue Reading
NICs in NAS systems
NAS expert Randy Kerns answers the question: "Is it typical, when using a NAS appliance, that a host/server would have 2xNICs installed?"Continue Reading
NAS checkpoints for NFS and CIFS file systems
NAS expert Randy Kerns discusses NAS checkpoint best practices for NFS and CIFS file systems.Continue Reading
Buyer's Guide: Data classification tools
Automated tools play an important role in the data classification process. Many tools allow administrators to discover the data resources that are available, apply uniform classification rules to data across the entire enterprise, create and manage ...Continue Reading
The winners of Storage magazine's Products of the Year were surprising
Storage Bin: The winners of Storage magazine's Products of the Year were surprising, as so few of them were big-name storage vendors. Here's Steve Duplessie's take on the subject.Continue Reading
Troubleshooting your NAS system
This tip will point out some common sense suggestions and best practices that may help you to create or maintain a more robust and reliable NAS infrastructure.Continue Reading
Data classification: The vendors
Corporate information resources regularly stretch into the terabytes (thousands of gigabytes) with many thousands (even millions) of individual files to contend with -- but the problem is now far more complex than simply "finding files". Finding ...Continue Reading
Which is the best platform for a storage subsystem management tool?
Customer value for features/characteristics
This column originally appeared on TechTarget's Expert Answer Center as a post in Randy Kerns' blog. Randy served as the Continue Reading
SAN file system
A SAN file system (that is, a storage area network file system) is programming that enables the sharing of the same copies of files stored on common storage media among multiple servers that may have different operating systems.Continue Reading
Serial Storage Architecture (SSA)
Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) is an open standard for high-speed access to high-capacity disk storage.Continue Reading
two-spindle system (twin-spindle system)
A two-spindle system, also called a twin-spindle system, is a computer design with two internal storage drives.Continue Reading
information architecture
In technical writing, information architecture is the set of ideas about how all information in a given context should be treated philosophically and, in a general way, how it should be organized.Continue Reading
CD-ROM XA (Compact Disc - read-only-memory, extended architecture)
CD-ROM XA (Compact Disc - read-only-memory, extended architecture) is a modification of CD-ROM that defines two new types of sectors that enable it to read and display data, graphics, video, and audio at the same time.Continue Reading
Questions to ask before building a NAS system
Questions and considerations when building a NAS system.Continue Reading
SCSI vs. iSCSI -- features, functionality and architecture
Switching storage vendors
Many storage managers would rather push their existing storage to the max rather than install a new vendor's equipment. Three companies describe how they changed vendors with as little pain as possible.Continue Reading
IDE NAS solution for home network
How to select storage management tools
This tip offers information about various types of storage management tools, and how to choose the right ones for your needs.Continue Reading
Andrew file system (AFS)
An Andrew file system (AFS) is a location-independent file system that uses a local cache to reduce the workload and increase the performance of a distributed computing environment.Continue Reading
Evaluating hardware: Price, capacity, port count and more
How to choose the best SAN or LAN switch
Looking to buy a SAN or LAN switch? Here are key questions to ask before you make a product choice.Continue Reading
HSM products from Veritas, Legato and HP
How to choose the right RAID level for your disk array
Cut through vendor hype and determine which RAID level (or levels) is right for your disk array.Continue Reading
Selecting database archiving tools
Four examples of NAS architecture
Tools for scanning and mapping the SAN
Should you choose a SATA-based array?
The new, "cheap" SATA drives may not be as cost-effective as you think.Continue Reading
Security concerns for maintaining multiple operating systems on the same host
What causes slow startup in Windows 2000
Failure to keep your service packs up-to-date is one reason Win2000 can be slow to startup. Find out in this tip how the problem has been corrected.Continue Reading
The great divide: mainframe and open-systems storage
If you'd like to use the same software to manage mainframe and open-systems storage, don't hold your breath. But there are more immediate ways that you can leverage mainframe best practices in the open-systems world.Continue Reading
Data management, the next major vendor battleground
Bits & Bytes: Storage expert Randy Kerns explores the importance of lifecycle data management and why vendors need to deliver a timely and effective solution.Continue Reading
Fibre Attached Storage products
Shared file systems: An overview
At their core, shared file systems let multiple users access the same files at the same time. Learn about the different products in this space and the categories they fall into.Continue Reading
The pros and cons of a single vendor environment
Storage assessment tools
If I want to do a storage assessment what tools would I need? Are there any hidden areas that I need to watch out for?Continue Reading
What to consider when evaluating file systems
Looking to file systems to provide better file management and heterogeneous support for your networked storage resources? Analyst Jamie Gruener shares how to go about your search.Continue Reading
Using IDE architecture
Shared file systems: a mixed blessing
Shared file systems promise to simplify managing storage. But you might have to wait a few years before that promise is fulfilled.Continue Reading
Replication between different vendors' arrays
DAS, NAS and SAN replication solution
Steps to take to evaluate and prioritize data you are managing
How to split a single fabric SAN and provide a fully redundant solution
Five backup options to consider when implementing a SAN/NAS solution - Part 1
What is the architecture of a SAN network?
Evaluating hard disk drives
IBM's NAS products
Non-blocking architecture
Non-blocking architectureContinue Reading
Evaluating SAN storage solutions
Core-edge SAN switch architecture
A discussion of the most scalable and fastest of the popular SAN switch architectures.Continue Reading
Cascaded SAN switch architectures
A discussion of the simplest of the SAN switch connection schemesContinue Reading
Sun Microsystems' N8400 and N8600 NAS products offer higher capacity and performance
Sun Microsystems announce two new models of the scalable NAS storage family called the Sun StorEdge N8000 Filers.Continue Reading
Data storage architecture
SAN management tools
Windows 2000 -- a file system for everyone
Choosing a class of SAN service: Class 3
Choosing a class of SAN service: Class 1
Hard Quotas vs. Soft Quotas - How to Choose a Disk Management Utility
Discover the differences between hard quotas and soft quotas, and what you need in a quota management utility.Continue Reading